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But bosses said, despite this, it had again met the national standard in January for seeing 95% of patients in A&E within four hours.

They said this was because they were continuing to stick well to its “robust winter plan” – the arrangements it makes every year in the run-up to December with the help of others, such as GPs, district nurses and the ambulance service, to cope with extra demand.

It is a target the city’s hospitals trust has missed for the past two financial years, to the end of March, but it has met for the past seven months.

David Ainsworth, general manager for acute medicine at Derby’s hospitals, also said the hospital had not been put on the highest alert possible – known as level black – one day this winter, compared to nine days last year.

He said: “These figures show people are arriving much sicker than before and that means they are using the service as they should – which really makes a difference because we can dedicate our staff to those emergencies.

“We’ve also seen an 11% increase in the number of people over the age of 85 turning up to A&E, which is a sign of the focus of the department at the moment.

“But we are coping well and, while we’ve still not had those weather extremes, it shows our winter plan is paying dividends.”

The figures show that, between last April and January this year, 7,525 people were rushed into resuscitation, compared to 6,788 in the same period the previous year.

2 comments

My wife was rushed in early Saturday morning, to A&E it was the lack of a bed on the wards that restricted her full admission. But she is to be operated on today. I can not fault either the ambulance service or RDH.